Malibu

Taxpayers for Livable Communities and Jay Liebig appeal from the trial court judgment denying their petition for a writ of mandamus alleging the City of Malibu and its city council violated California’s Ralph M. Brown Act, the open meeting law. We affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The California Coastal Act of 1976 (Pub. Resources Code, § 30000 et seq.) (Coastal Act) obligates coastal cities such as Malibu to adopt a local coastal program (LCP) (Pub. Resources Code, § 30500 et seq.). As we discussed in our published decision in City of Malibu v. California Coastal Com. (2004) 121 Cal.App.4th 989 [ 18 Cal.Rptr.3d 40 ], for many years after becoming a city in 1991, Malibu dragged its feet in developing its LCP. In response, in 2000 the Legislature amended the Coastal Act by adding section 30166.5. The new section ordered the Coastal Commission to write and implement a LCP for Malibu by September 2002. (Pub. Resources Code, § 30166.5, subd. (b).)

In September 2001, the Coastal Commission released for public comment a draft of one component of Malibu’s eventual LCP, a land use plan (LUP). In the months following, two of the five members of Malibu’s city council,…